Height 18 inches (32 cm).

An original design made from batik cotton fabric on a wire armature. His hair is unwashed wool.

Dressed in suede and a piece of a vintage fur scarf.

Accessories: the flute is camel bone. Skull on the wooden wand is from a rat. He wears beads of horn, shell, coral glass, and metal.

Stand is wire on a wooden base. The wire flexes, so he dances if there's a little breeze.

Sorry, he’s in a private collection—but if you’re interested in something similar, contact me.

My Dancing Shaman represents a combination of many ethnicities. His shoes are from a book on Mongolian costume. His belt is from Africa. The beaded fur headpiece and leather leggings recall Native American costumes. His beads come from many cultures.

When I was buying the piece of bone I used for the shaman’s bone flute, my husband commented it looked like something that belonged on a “pot-bellied, old Siberian shaman”. As I started to sketch ideas before cutting the pattern, the image of a little old potbellied shaman was in my mind . He wouldn’t go away until the figure was finished.